"Kero-tran" as cutting oil

My original supply was for making fly dope, for floating dry flies. You'd dissolve as much paraffin in it as it would take (refrigerate the carbon tet first, or you'd find out it wouldn't hold as much on a cold day on the stream, because the wax would precipitate out and make useless glop). Then you'd put some in a little glass vial, so you could put the fly in the vial, put your thumb over the top, and give it a shake. One or two false casts would shake off the excess and dry out the carbon tet. It was the best fly dope I ever used.

We used gasoline when we didn't have carbon tet, but it would leave an oily film on the water. Not good.

-- Ed Huntress

Thanks for the fly-makin' "dope". That is a use for carbon-tet I hadn't heard of. It is always good to read your RCM posts, Ed. Every time I see your name there I recall the recommendation you gave several years ago for the book, "Tool Steel Simplified". It has become my bible source of heat treatment for drill rod and other forms of tool steel. Wonderful book and as timely today as when it first came out in 1937.

Bob Swinney

My original supply was for making fly dope, for floating dry flies. You'd dissolve as much paraffin in it as it would take (refrigerate the carbon tet first, or you'd find out it wouldn't hold as much on a cold day on the stream, because the wax would precipitate out and make useless glop). Then you'd put some in a little glass vial, so you could put the fly in the vial, put your thumb over the top, and give it a shake. One or two false casts would shake off the excess and dry out the carbon tet. It was the best fly dope I ever used.

We used gasoline when we didn't have carbon tet, but it would leave an oily film on the water. Not good.

-- Ed Huntress

'Glad you find that book useful, Bob. It's a classic, and a good basic book for any machinist, hobby or otherwise.

-- Ed Huntress

Well there are some pumps and carbon filters out behind the shop. Seems where I worked used a bunch long before I showed up. I also miss liquid freon we used for hydraulic patch filter contaminate testing. Bet that stuff was banned long ago.

Wes

of. It is always

recommendation you

bible source of heat

timely today as when

scroll to bottom and set down your beverage and swallow first.

Wes

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 02:03:38 -0400, with neither quill nor qualm, Wes quickly quoth:

of. It is always

the recommendation you

my bible source of heat

timely today as when

How does he figure that he can sell a 1978 (or earlier) book as "new"?!? I see a lot of outrageous prices on Amazon books, some which Amazon is currently selling for $20 and these morons want $263.97 for a used copy with no author signature or anything. Go figure.

Anywho, doing a search on Amazon for that title brings up a dozen listings, some selling for as little as $5.93.

-- Who is John Galt?

1,1,1-trichloroethane is (was?) the stuff for the vapor degreasers. I had a summer job during college (late 70s) at a chemical factory, the degreaser was more or less a slightly heated dumpster with a foot of that in the bottom and hangars for parts in the top. I didn't use it a lot, but there was simply a ladder to climb up and you reached through the rising vapors to grab parts off the wires holding them. It's amazing any of us have any brain cells left at all.

All of that must have been within OSHA standards at the time. This company was, as far as I could tell, fairly tight about safety compliance.

Trichlorethylene had a short life as an inhaled anesthetic drug. It had several problems, think the main problem was a reaction with the carbon dioxide absorbers in the anesthetic machines. Is it still used as an industrial solvent?

David (anesthesiologist)

Robert Sw>>

of. It is always

recommendation you

bible source of

timely today as when

scroll to bottom and set down your beverage and swallow first.

Wes

Jeeeze, Wes !

That one on the bottom is pretty pricey, indeed. OTOH, I wouldn't trade my 1937 first ed. copy for it though. I also have a much newer one, a 1960 edition. Tool Steel Simplified is a great book; IMO, every hobby machinist should have a copy. It takes all the guess work out of heat treatment, particularly that of watching for subtle color changes in the work piece. It pretty much reduces heat treatment to heating the work piece to "beyond" magnetic, and then tempering in an ordinary (kitchen) oven for an amount of time prescribed for the desired amount of hardness". The only caveat is that you start with a "known" piece of tool steel -- and that includes all readily available drill rod.

Bob Swinney

Strap sez:

"How does he figure that he can sell a 1978 (or earlier) book as "new"?!? I see a lot of outrageous prices on Amazon books, some which Amazon is currently selling for $20 and these morons want $263.97 for a used copy with no author signature or anything. Go figure."

Dunno, Strap. Book dealers seem to operate that way. For example, I recently looked for a used copy of "Steam Power, A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1780 -

1930". I found one and ordered it. A couple of weeks went by and the book dealer sent an e-mail saying they were sorry but their sources for the book had dried up. I looked elsewhere and found no other used copies available or at least found none at anywhere the price I wanted to pay for a used book.

I was able to locate a new copy of the book as advertised "New book with new dust cover" from a dealer in "used, rare and out-of-print books" I bought the new book and it is really new; although copyright in 1985, there was no printing date in it. It appears to be completely new with no wear whatsoever. I bought the book.

Bob Swinney

Erratum:

Insert, "Quenching" after beyond magnetic.

Sorry,

Bob Swinney

On Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:00:20 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Robert Swinney" quickly quoth:

1937 first ed. copy for

Simplified is a great book;

Is there any advantage to buying a newer version vs. the good old ones?

Not according to Wikepedia. Trichloroethane isn't mentioned as a degreaser. I know for sure it wasn't used in the vapor degreaser that we had where I was trained. The smell was totally different.

"There are 3 standard chlorinated degreaser type solvents - trichloroethylene(TCE), methylene chloride and perchloroethylene (perc)."

Harold

Strap sez: "Is there any advantage to buying a newer version vs. the good old ones?"

Well, yeah! In my case, good old versions of the book were priced in the several hundreds of $. I got the "new" one for $147.

Bob Swinney